Posted on 03/20/2022 7:09:22 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
^^
Yep, and almost ALL of that growth due to rising energy prices, not Russia exporting more oil or gas.
Putin seems to think he has Stalin's freedom to waste as many units of the Russian Army as he pleases. He does not.
Yes, no matter the ultimate outcome, Russia and especially putin ends up weaker. And that is a good thing. Unless putin goes nuclear which would be very bad indeed.
Good article. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but he does appear to have gone more deeply into the facts and the situation on the ground than a lot of people commenting on the situation.
Have you looked at your recent posting history? Profanities, gratuitous personal insults, unprovoked insults, threats of violence....keep it up and you’ll get a visit from law enforcement.
Dial it down. Thanks.
Hello,
I recently made a $500 donation and would appreciate being listed on the ‘300 Club’ list.
Thank you! (-:
A few of us suspected that the turn against domination by Putin might be in the cards, when rather quickly it became evident the separatists were failing to make headway, and then pro-West political candidates began to make more and more inroads in places like Mariupol.
This is one of those situations in social science that has rough analogs in hard sciences like physics and engineering, where a “push” may result in an opposite reaction to what the “pusher” intends, or one would expect.*
Of course, significant pro-Russian militias are likely about, and some of the militia vs. militia fighting could be very, very ugly on both sides. But, all in all, even if Putin “wins” as defined by most of the Putinistas on FR, he and Russia lose badly. In a more civil and more positive course, he could have won.
*(One of my favorite examples is that of one’s spacecraft in the same orbit as a spacecraft one desires to catch up to, but, say, 20 minutes behind. What direction does one fire their engines to catch up?)
The Azov Battalion and their ilk, at least up until the invasion began, are just not numerous enough to explain what has happened. Their numbers don’t even explain Mariupol.
OTOH, if the Azov types were far more numerous than thought, that still would reflect a MUCH larger West leaning base in the population than existed in 2014.
What it boils down to is that most people will go with their pocketbook, and don’t like troublemakers who up-end their lives and fortunes (even when said fortunes are modest).
Curiously, and possibly related, the old antiwar song at the link below languished (in its various postings) at moderate “hits” on You Tube for a long time, then became quite popular with Russian speakers after 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMs7SLDFZdI&list=RDGMEMJQXQAmqrnmK1SEjY_rKBGA&index=1
One of the best threads on FR for a long time. Good discussion.
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